In recent years, single use photographic cameras have become popular which are sold to a customer already loaded with unexposed film. Cameras are available with or without flash, for panoramic pictures, with telephoto lens, with water-tight cases, with special graphics and with other distinguishing features. As the customer uses the camera, exposed frames are wound into a light-tight cartridge within the camera. When all frames have been exposed, the customer brings the entire camera to a photofinisher, who removes the cartridge containing the exposed film, processes the film and returns photographic prints to the customer. The photofinisher also may remove the battery from cameras with flash. The remainder of the camera, typically comprising an essentially parallelepipedic camera body enclosing a camera frame, is then returned to the original manufacturer where various parts of the camera are recovered for recycling.
FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a typical single use camera of a type for use with 35 mm film. The features of such cameras are generally well-known and cameras differing in various ways from that illustrated also may be conveyed and recycled in accordance with the method and apparatus of the present invention. As illustrated, a single use camera 10 comprises a light-tight plastic inner camera body 12 which houses: a known fixed-focus taking lens 14; a known film metering mechanism, not shown; a known shutter mechanism, not shown; a known frame counter 16 for visibly indicating the number of exposures remaining; and an electronic flash unit 18, all packaged in a cardboard outer cover or casing 20. Cover 20 is provided with: a front opening 22 for the taking lens; a top opening 24 for a manual shutter release button 26; a rear opening for a manual film advance thumbwheel, not shown; a front opening 28 for a front viewfinder window 30 of a direct see-through viewfinder 32; and a rear opening, not shown, for a rear viewfinder window 34. The cover also includes: a top opening 36 for the frame counter; a front opening 38 for a flash emission window 40; a top opening 42 for a flash-ready light emitting diode 44; and a front opening 46 for a manual push element 48 which is pushed to ready the flash unit. As shown, camera 10 is essentially parallelepipedic in shape with a length L, a width W and a thickness T less than the length or the width.
Since sales of single use cameras run into the millions of units each year, the stream of used cameras being returned presents a significant material handling, conveying and sorting problem. The used cameras typically are returned in large palletized containers about four feet (1.3 m) on a side, containing a random mix of used cameras. Most such cameras currently are wrapped, in various degrees, in a heavy paper carton bearing a considerable variety of graphical information. Although most photofinishers strive to exclude extraneous material from the palletized containers, a variety of loose parts usually is included with the used camera bodies, such as loose batteries, film spools, film canisters, canister tops, and loose camera parts. Such loose parts need to be removed from the incoming stream of recyclables before the various camera bodies are separated, usually manually, by camera type and manufacturer. If the camera bodies and loose parts are simply dumped onto a conveyor for delivery to operators who will sort the various camera types, the flow of cameras on the conveyor tends to jam rather easily as the cameras pile up and become snagged on each other, the loose parts and portions of the conventional conveyor systems. This, of course, slows greatly the necessary sorting of the different camera types and removal of loose parts.
Various systems are known for separating objects to be recycled. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,769 discloses an apparatus for separating rail road track components in which an oscillating conveyor causes smaller parts to drop through a grid while larger parts are conveyed to a downstream conveyor for further sorting. U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,486 discloses an apparatus for separating recyclable waste comprising a magnetic separator, a vibrating shaker screen and an air sorter for removing various types of material from a waste stream. U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,591 discloses a refuse recycling system in which a stream of refuse is conveyed past operators who remove recyclable materials and deposit them in collection chutes. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,224 discloses an apparatus for conveying and aligning used single use camera bodies, in which a rotating cylindrical tube receives the camera bodies and orients them longitudinally for subsequent sorting.
While such known sorting apparatus and methods have achieved some measure of success, a need has continued to exist for a method and apparatus which can receive used single use camera bodies in bulk and efficiently separate the camera bodies from loose parts before the camera bodies are sorted by type and manufacturer.